The Spy Who Came in From Alcauld
by Cairn Rennin
Summary: Audience participation time. There's a spy in Garden and it's up to Squall to find them. You get to decide who the spy is and to accuse people in a general witch-hunt way.
1. Default Chapter Title

This is an audience participation story where you get to pick who Squall investigates. At the end, you get to choose who the spy is as well. But if you are looking for a humour piece, I suggest you exit stage right.

# The Spy Who Came in From Alcauld

## Prologue

"Xu, listen to me. I need you to go into Galbadia and meet Major-General Josylin. We have been told that he wishes to leave the Galbadian Army and would like to help us in our intelligence gathering."  
"Why send me? Wouldn't someone out of the Intelligence Directorate be more suited?" Xu watched as Cid reached into a drawer and pulled out a file. Turning the cover, he handed the top sheet to Xu.  
"The general has information that may be too sensitive to send someone from GID. The fact of the matter is that one of those six people is a spy for the Galbadians. I know, I could hardly believe it myself, but it is definite: one of those is a traitor, and this Josylin may know who it is.  
"It is not a well-known fact, but our networks in Galbadia have been rolled back with ease. Dozens of agents have been compromised and what product that is coming out of there is showing that their intelligence on us must have come from the top. We know a few rough dates and times, nothing solid, but from the stuff the Galbadians have of ours, someone in the top echelon is selling info.  
"There are six names on that list: Zell Dincht, Selphie Tilmitt, Quistis Trepe, Irvine Kinneas, Rinoa Heartilly and Squall Leonhart. We both know them very well, but we don't know one well enough." Cid rested his elbows on the desk in front of him. "I can't stress how important this is. A leak like this could destroy SeeD, and we can't let that happen. Go to Galbadia, meet with Josylin and find out who the spy is. Get me a name, something, anything. I don't need proof, even suspicions are good enough at the moment. Go at once, Xu. I hope you return with good news." Xu nodded and saluted, then turned and walked out of the door.  
_I can't help thinking that somewhere I've missed something, that the solution is here somewhere._ He looked over at the selection of manila folders stacked on an end-table. He picked up the sheets from the desk and tucked them into the folder. _I just hope she finds something._

**Six Weeks Later**

Squall lay on his bed, thinking. He found it soothing, to contemplate in the dark. Everything was much clearer in darkness. He could hear the slightest sound, even through the paper-thin walls that separated each dormitory from the next. He heard Zell, for instance, shuffling his feet across the threadbare carpet as he sparred against thin air. He could hear Selphie tapping away at a keyboard, typing her diary he assumed. What is the point, he mused, of writing something that nobody reads? _Maybe the accomplishment is not that someone read it, but that you wrote it. Sometimes perhaps the greatest achievements are the unnoticed ones._ He heard the room below him, where two people seemed to be carrying out a rather animated conversation. _Sometimes when I jump on the floors here I think they'll give way. The entire floor rests on a couple of age-old supporting trusses. The thing could collapse at any moment, leaving a hundred children mutilated._ Quistis was in the room next to Zell and regardless of Squall's hearing or the thickness of the walls, no sound seemed to come from there.  
_How would I know which sounds come from which room? Maybe if I hear a woman - then it couldn't possibly have come from Zell's room._ It was a kind of perverse entertainment for Squall to insult Zell. It seemed to lose something, however, when Zell couldn't hear it. _Maybe that's why Seifer did it so much: perhaps I have something in common with Seifer that isn't superficial._ He subconsciously touched the scar across his forehead. It had started to heal, and in a few years you would not be able to see it.  
He glanced over at the bars of red light that seemed to glow with an alien quality. 5:14. Squall shut his eyes and thought about yesterday. There had still been no word from Xu after she went on a fact-finding mission to Esthar. The word was that she might have been attacked before she reached Esthar. Cid had officially called her MIA: the Garden term for 'We think she's dead and we've given up hope but we haven't seen a body _yet_'. Quistis had been a little distraught lately, and Squall had thought about going to try and comfort her. Admittedly, the thought only crossed his mind for a few seconds, but Squall held that up as 'progress'. That was the word Rinoa called it.  
If he thought about it honestly, he was beginning to tire of the whole emotions deal. He couldn't see what use they served but to blunt your senses and obscure your objectivity. But the others were into them in a big way, and they seemed to think that he needed them to live. _Whatever_.  
He was startled by the knock on his door, and only just managed a groggy 'come in'. The doors parted and Cid quietly stepped into his room. "Squall, it's good to see that you're up. Come with me, I have something for you to do." _Is he out of his mind?_  
"Give me a minute to get changed." Squall stumbled into his clothes and emerged a little dishevelled. Cid either failed to notice or let it slide, because he was already leading Squall to his office. He offered Squall a seat and the young commander accepted, grateful of the support. Cid locked the door behind him.  
Cid breathed out slowly, before repositioning his glasses. "I am sorry for getting you up this early but I couldn't take the risk of a private meeting during the day. This is a very serious matter and everything that we say must stay strictly between you and me." Squall nodded. Maybe this was important.  
"There are five people. You know each one of them very well. One of them is a spy. Zell, Selphie, Quistis, Irvine and Rinoa. In those names is a spy who works for the Galbadians. I want you to find who it is.  
"We can't possibly talk about them using their names, so we must assign them codenames. Tell me, do you know the nursery rhyme, 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor'?" Squall nodded. "Finish it."  
"Rich man, Poor man, Beggar man, Thief."  
"We'll use that. Zell Dincht - Tinker. Selphie Tilmitt - Tailor. Quistis Trepe - Soldier. We can't use Sailor, it sounds too much like Tailor, they might get confused. Rich man is also out, it could sound like a fraud investigation. Irvine Kinneas - Poor man, it's somewhat fitting. Rinoa Heartilly - Beggar man." Cid shifted in his chair.  
"Being as we're discussing secrets, I'll let you in on one nobody else knows: I'm going to retire. I've had enough. Dr Kadowaki said I have angina pectoris, and with all the stress as well, it's getting to me. I want you, Squall, to be the new Headmaster." Squall blinked. "The reason I want this spy business cleared up quickly, apart from the obvious, is that from these five people must come your successor, and we can't have a spy as Commander of Garden. I hope you understand the gravity of this situation: your friends are all potential traitors. Trust none of them under you are sure that they are innocent.  
"You were originally on this list, Squall. I sent someone to Galbadia to interview a Major-General Josylin. A report from one of our remaining agents suggested that he wanted to defect to Garden and knew something about this matter. I sent Xu to talk to him. A week later, the agent who gave me Josylin was in a car accident."  
"The type of car accident where you drove off a bridge while being blindfolded, gagged and tied up in the back seat?"  
"Not quite but it might as well have been. Listen, you can use all of the information in our libraries, for what they're worth. I'm giving you carte blanche here. Tap phones, break in to buildings, steal documents, do whatever you have to. But don't be obvious. I don't have to tell you this but a big investigation will send the spy to ground. I think that you may need an assistant so Nida will help you. Good luck." Squall nodded to Cid tersely.

The pile of papers landed on his desk with a thud. "This is everything we have on Galbadian agents and possible controllers." Squall nodded his appreciation to Nida, who was busy flexing his arms. "There's a lot of stuff there. Most of it is probably junk, though. Is there anything else you need me for?"  
"No." Nida turned to leave. "Don't go far: I may need you in the future." Nida exited leaving Squall and the mountain of paperwork. He glanced at the top folder.  
"Movements of Suspected Agents Through Embassies. Obviously a riveting read." He sifted through them. "Operation Candlejack. The controlling of one of Galbadia's Balamb embassy's low-level staff." He opened the folder and had a quick look through. The low-level employee in question was the night duty officer, who manned the telex and secretly copied any transmission, incoming or outgoing, that seemed of relevance. He was paid 3000 gil per transmission. He placed the transmissions inside a jar of flowers at a grave in Balamb's largest cemetery.  
He placed the file back in. Extracting another he read the first few pages. Operation Imogen was the collection of data sent to Garden that had seemed to originate in Garden: that is, documents that had been passed on to enemy, along with rough dates of transmission. _This must be what Cid was talking about_. An analysis of some of the dates and documents had been completed, and certain people were cleared of this spying charge. The report named the five SeeD who were still under suspicion, along with the reason that Squall was removed.  
"It seems that I was never given one of the reports that this mole - codenamed Jackhammer, maybe because of the damage it was doing? - had passed on to Galbadia. Well, I can be thankful for something." _Where should I start? I should probably look at each person in turn, and try to find things out in that way. I just can't believe that one of those is a spy.  
Who could it be? Zell? He was annoyed at Seifer but I thought he was happy in Garden now that he's a SeeD and Seifer has disappeared without a trace.  
Quistis? She'd been a SeeD for years, and had always seemed to love her work. True, she was sacked as an instructor and never reinstated but she doesn't seem to really fit the bill.  
Selphie?_ Squall thought about Selphie being a devious, underhand, master tactician and undercover spy. _No, it's not Selphie. I won't dismiss the possibility, but I will dismiss the probability.  
Irvine? Perhaps the fact that he served for years in Galbadia before coming here might make me suspect him more than the others, but because of that it probably isn't him. This spying thing really makes your brain hurt. You get caught in suspicions and counter-suspicions, in ploys and gambits. Why did Cid ask me? Why not someone who _knows_ about this type of thing. Perhaps because I know these people, know a bit about thow they think.  
Rinoa? I just cannot accept that Rinoa is a spy. I know her so well, she couldn't keep a secret that big from me, could she?_  
Squall's brow furrowed. "You'll get wrinkles." Squall looked up, startled to hear Rinoa's voice. He almost jumped out of his chair when she started to move into the room. "What's all this stuff." She gestured towards the files scattered about the table.  
"Err, nothing," Squall quickly said. _Smooth move, maybe if you put a neon sign above your head saying 'SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY HERE' she might notice a little more._ "It's just some paperwork that Cid wants me to go through. It's rather classified, though." _It was a save of sorts._  
"Can I have a look? Classified stuff is normally really interesting." Squall grabbed a file chosen seemingly at random. It was titled, 'Log of Transmissions during Period 1/1/2075-7/8/2075'. He handed her the file. She eagerly opened it, not reading the title, and looked forlornly at the first page.  
"This isn't interesting, it's a bunch of numbers. Just lists of dates and times. This stuff is classified?"  
"Yeah. It is very boring work, looking at rows of numbers. Anyway, what did you want?"  
"I just came to see if you'd eaten yet. Have you?" Squall shook his head.  
"No, and I'm really hungry. Let's go." He grabbed his jacket and Rinoa led him out of the door. Squall turned and locked the room, making sure to place the key into his inside jacket pocket. _If Rinoa is the spy, she might try to lift it and get in there._ Rinoa moved up to him and hugged him.  
"What's wrong?" Squall looked up from her hands for a second.  
"Nothing."

OK, there is the first instalment. Who should Squall investigate first? Now's your chance to make wild accusations. In a few days time I shall come back and have a look, and whoever gets the most votes will be investigated. At the end of part 6, (5 parts, one for each suspect) you choose who you think the spy is. The one with the most votes will be found out in the final part. If nobody cares then nobody will vote and so I won't carry on. Either way, everyone's happy.


	2. Default Chapter Title

This is an audience participation story where you get to pick who Squall investigates. At the end, you get to choose who the spy is as well. But if you are looking for a humour piece, I suggest you exit stage right.

# The Spy Who Came in From Alcauld

## Chapter One - Rinoa

"I think that I should investigate Rinoa first. Possibly because I want to clear her first, I still don't feel right looking at her and thinking of whether I should say a certain thing in front of her. I need to know."  
"You're the boss, Squall. Do you want me to do anything?" Squall nodded sharply.  
"Yes, I want to know about Rinoa's parentage. We know who her parents are, but I want to know if Caraway had any connections, no matter how contrived, with the Galbadian Intelligence Bureau. Friends, contacts, suspicious movements, the complete work-out. And I want Rinoa's history for, oh, about the last eighteen years."  
"Right. What do you want me to do for the rest of the morning?"  
"You couldn't make me a cup of coffee, could you? This spy business is thirsty work." Squall was lucky that he had his back turned to Nida because the glare he was given could have emotionally scarred him for life.  
"I think you can manage. I'll get off to the Central Records Office in Galbadia then, shall I? Right, this is me going." Nida turned and strode out of room. Squall sat alone, the door securely locked. He was not going to have a repeat of yesterday.  
"While you do that I'll have a talk to a certain person," Squall said to the empty room. "I like talking to myself. It makes it so much easier and at least I can understand me." Squall rose from his chair, to a chorus of soft creaks as the wood straightened itself. He circled the table once, dragging his fingertips across the cool tabletop. He breathed out, steeling himself for the meeting he was about to attend. Gathering up his keys he spun on his heels and quietly paced towards the door.

"Which legend should I use for this task?" Nida was talking to the chief of the Illegals Directorate, the division of Garden Intelligence that dealt with giving its agents in foreign countries false names so that they could move about with impunity. These so-called 'legends' have to be carefully maintained, credit card purchases made, employment undertaken and so on. After all, someone cannot just disappear for ten years then come back again and expect questions not to be asked. Where were they? On the toilet?  
"Harren Grewer, a twenty-year-old corporal attached to the 2nd Division of I Corps. It'll be enough to get you into the CRO in Deling City, but once you're in there you're on your own." The chief pulled out a thin folder from the shelf behind him. The chief, a balding man in his early forties, placed the folder on the desk in front of Nida. "Here are the pertinent details. You know what the procedures are. Stay inconspicuous, and please don't get caught."  
"I'll try," Nida said sarcastically. He shifted position in the low chair. The chief sat high in a leather-backed armchair, and it gave him a considerable height advantage. _I wonder if he did this deliberately?_ Nida sank even lower into the cushions of the easy chair. _Quite definitely._ "Tell me, do you get many political enemies in here?" The chief smirked, a thin smile playing across his lips. Then his face cracked into a broad smile, and he let a small laugh escape. The wrinkles across his face deepened slightly.  
"You are the observant one, aren't you? I think that it is normally best to exude an aura of dominance. When people enter my office, they are usually looking for something, they want a favour. The seating arrangements merely reinforce their view that I am in control." Nida tried to extract himself from the chair and with some difficulty managed to stand.  
"You don't have that many friends, do you?" The chief laughed properly this time, a deep booming laugh that Nida thought would shake the floor.  
"Not in this building, no. You can't, not when you're in this division. Anyway, I think you really should get going. Otherwise Squall will probably get angry and I don't think you'd like him angry. He carries a gunblade, after all."  
"Yeah, I suppose." Nida got to the door before spinning around. "How do you know who I'm working for?" The chief gave him a withering look.  
"What do I do for a living?" Nida let out a short laugh and left.

The table was round, a sturdy, oak affair with thick legs. Two matching chairs sat, one on either side of it. The heels of Squall's shoes clicked as he walked across the wooden floor. Panelling covered the walls. Squall turned to face his companion. "Into wood are we?"  
"You know, you have to like something." Squall sat on one of the chairs. "So, what do you want to know. I get a call out of the blue asking for a meeting. It's been what - a year? - since we last met."  
"Yeah, it's been about that long. I don't want anything important, just some information."  
"Maybe you should talk to Watts. He's the information officer around here. I, apparently, don't seem to do a hell of a lot." Zone gave a small smile.  
"No, it has to be you. Now, you can't talk about this to anyone. Do you understand?" Zone nodded, thoughtfully. "Who are the main members of your group?"  
"The Owls? Me and Watts, now that Rinoa has gone off with you. Can't you just find this sort of thing from her?" Squall shook his head slowly. _Does he look kind of apprehensive? Or maybe it's just this paranoia that Cid has inflicted on me I am a soldier, not a spy._  
"Not really, you see I don't want Rinoa finding out. No, I just need to know some things. Like when your last operation was." Zone narrowed his eyes towards Squall.  
"Who are you working for, Squall? The Galbadians? For all I know, you could be in cohorts with them." _Not quite, you have the right idea, just the wrong spy._  
"I just want to know whether you've done anything since that train debacle." Zone shook his head, but offered no explanation. "Are you, rather were you, the only active cell in Timber?"  
"Yeah. Nobody else ever had the courage to challenge Galbadia except us. I think Rinoa seemed to cause that. I don't remember us doing much before she came, either."  
"So she was some kind of catalyst. Did she urge you to try and attack Galbadia at all?" Squall shifted uneasily in his chair. _I'm looking for an excuse to discount Rinoa, but so far I've not found a hell of a lot._  
"Oh yeah, that's probably where we got our impetus from. She was always encouraging us, trying to help. She asked Watts a lot of questions, what he knew and stuff. She said that the more the whole group knew, the more plans we could create. It was getting kind of tiring in the end, though."  
Squall looked up from the grain he was examining. "Why was that?"  
"Well, no plan ever seemed to work properly. The Galbadians always manage to either find out or somehow get in the way. Like what happened on the train."  
"Did Rinoa ever tell you why she came to Timber? I mean, a Galbadian doesn't walk through the door every day wanting revenge on her country."  
"She always said that her father never had any time for her, he was always thinking about her mother. Strange that, for someone who went through such a traumatic childhood - abandoned by her mother and ignored by her father, moving from post to post trailing her father's career - she never seemed anything but happy and eager." Squall simply sat there for a few moments, admiring a twisted knot in the wood.  
"Thank you. I think I have all I need." Zone nodded and got up.  
"Well, if you need nothing else, I'll be going. I think you know the way back."

"So, what did you get?"  
Nida was lying back in a chair quietly dozing when Squall woke him up. Startled, Nida jumped forward. Squall repeated the question, slowly deepening the scowl on his face.  
"What? Oh, the CRO. I think it's broken, the waveform doesn't look right at all." Squall attempted a deeper frown, and scared Nida enough for him to drop the joke. "I went to the CRO. You know, it's five floors, and the architect seemed to lose more of his mind as he worked his way up it. The ground and first floor have a very ordered structure, but by the fifth floor the shelves aren't labelled, there's no indexing, nothing. The corridors run like a rabbit warren."  
"Let me guess, the stuff on Caraway is on the fifth floor."  
"Bingo. Well, it was supposed to have been, I eventually found the shelf where it should have been then found that it had been moved to the third floor in an unreported reorganisation 'for my convenience'. I eventually found the stuff, what there was of it."  
Squall sat down in a leather chair facing Nida. Cid had put them into the room because you can't think sitting uncomfortably. Squall silently thanked him again and he sank lower. He gently caressed the leather of the arm, listening to Nida's lengthy day of research.  
"It seems that our boy Caraway has been busy." Nida jumped up and walked behind Squall, over to the table covered in charts and documents. He waited for a few seconds, hopeful that Nida would return to his chair, then gave up and reluctantly got up. He turned around just in time to see Nida walk past him towards his chair._Cosmic._  
"Large chunks of Caraway's life have been classified beyond what a lowly corporal can acquire. By the way, the computer gives Caraway's codename as Dipshit." Squall raised his eyebrows. "Well, maybe Gecko. Anyway, Gecko had a few interesting periods in his life where he disappeared for three years and later four years.  
"I take it that it wasn't that he couldn't find his car keys?" Nida laughed.  
"A joke, from Squall? What's next, emotion?"  
"I have been trying to improve my dry wit over the last few days. It seems a character trait that befits a spy-catcher. Rather like a healthy sense of paranoia, or an urge to wear a long overcoat and throw pieces of bread into duck ponds. I suppose it is a little stereotypical but there you go.  
"I suppose I was trying to discount Rinoa by investigating her first. But having done so, I feel rather less sure of her innocence. Her father has had considerable periods of classified activity, she joined the Timber resistance and has caused botched plans by the armload. She came here and suddenly we have a spy in our midst. But I shall carry on. I'll look into other people, but other things may well happen that might affect those we have already investigated."  
"Are we any closer to finding out who it is?"  
Squall knitted his fingers, and brought them up to his face. Brow furrowing in concentration, he stayed in silence for a few moments. "No. It will be a long time before I can point a finger." On the table was a chart. "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier..." He trailed off. He traced a finger across the black-and-white photograph of Rinoa. "Spy?"

The same as last time: give your opinions as to who Squall should investigate next. We might delay the witchhunt for a few parts until the evidence really starts coming in. Part 3 should be up next week: I am planning on one 'episode' every week. So until then the spy continues to roam freely.


End file.
